Sermon: On the Way

October 18, 2015 – On The Way from John Knox Kirk on Vimeo.

A sermon preached at The Kirk of Kansas City, Missouri, on October 18, 2015.

We are in DANGER of becoming a society of SPECTATORS.

Morning, noon, and night—TV Talk-shows invite us to tune in
to WATCH and HEAR as OTHER people talk about their lives
or, ONLINE, getting updates on what OTHERS are doing…

If you asked the Herring-Bailey household
what was the most watched television show of the summer,
we would answer, Big Brother,
which just concluded its 17^th season
when Steve got more votes than Liz
It was epic.

Real-life docudramas let you “be there” in the comfort of your
own home—and live vicariously through
the adventures of OTHERS…
…while NEVER leaving your armchair
or your computer screen.

CHURCHS, now, lure church shoppers with a
“no load, no burden, no commitment necessary”
type of worship.

COME, and sit in a movie theater like chair
BE ENTERTAINED by musical groups,
BE SANITIZED from meddlesome words
like “redemption” “sacrifice”
“grace” “cross.”

We are in DANGER of becoming a CHURCH of SPECTATORS!

///
As Tom Long recounted it[1]
it was a rollicking night at the theatre.
A young actor named Tom Key was playing the part of Jesus
in the play “Cotton Patch Gospel”
and he was bringing the house down.

The play, a bluegrass musical which depicts the ministry of Jesus
as if it had occurred in the cotton fields
and Baptist churches of rural south Georgia—
the play was in its final performance
and Key was feeling….confident
and even inventive with his lines.

His enthusiasm was contagious,
as he forged a bond
of mutual exchange and appreciation with his audience.

///
During the scene depicting the Sermon on the Mount
Key, as Jesus, suddenly turned from the group on the stage
toward the audience,
pointed to the blank auditorium side wall, and said,
“Look at the lilies in that field…”

He stopped,
almost as if he had forgotten the next line,
peered around at the disciples,
focused again on the audience and repeated:
“Look at the lilies in that field…”

Once more he stopped, and seemed to be searching for the next words.
The audience began to, well, shift, uncomfortably.

His hand extended yet again to the blank wall,
and this time he spoke the words slowly and deliberately,
“Look …at… the… lilies… in… that… field…”

NOW, he turned to the disciples,
shrugged his shoulders, and said, “I can’t get them to look.”

And the room filled with laughter
as it dawned on the audience
that he really wanted them to look.

And sure enough, when he gave it one more try,
“Look at the lilies in that field…”

every head in the audience turned toward the side wall…

///
I don’t know whether Mark, the gospel writer,
was present in that theatre that night,
but, if not, he should have been.

It was his kind of show.

Mark spends his whole gospel
trying to get people to look—really look—at the life of Jesus.

And to do it in a way that takes us BEYOND the role
of mere SPECTATORS!

Hurrying toward Jerusalem,
intent on a purpose,
yet stopping, relentlessly stopping
for all who need healing, need hope, need care and compassion.

The other Gospel writers pick up on this:
Matthew’s deeply poignant sermons
Luke’s beautifully described parables
John inviting people to “come and see”
but Mark focuses all of these into these stories of Jesus
like the one before us this morning.

The blind Bartimaeus
there as Jesus and his entourage walks past
yearning not to let this One who heals and preaches and loves go by
and so calling, calling, calling out to him:
Son of David, have mercy on me!

And Jesus stops, and ask plainly,
What is it that you want me to do for you
and Bartimaeus says “Rabbouni, let me see again….”
And with it, the words that embrace all that faith portends
Jesus, let us see again…

And there is healing
and there is hope
and Bartimaeus, he follows Jesus, along the way of Jesus…

Like children who have seen a meteor shower lighting up the night sky,
and have run breathlessly into the house to call their parents,
the church runs towards the world,
pulling it gently, but urgently by the hand
  Come and see…
  Come and see…
  There are wonders beyond imagining to behold…

///
Eyes are open.
Come and see! The Gospel writers urge.

And the actor playing Jesus, shrugging his shoulders, said:
“I can’t get them to look…”

…where have YOU been looking lately?

Sometimes people do not see the grace of God at work
in the world through Jesus
Because they will not come to the place where they can see.

The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it,
BUT, the light is not visible from every vantage point.
Armchair participants generally don’t last very long
in the Christian faith.

One must COME and see.

///
A few years ago,
I read about a church located in a large city.

It was one of those churches built at a time
where they devoted energy and resources to
recreation ministry programs
and so they had this large gym upstairs, on the third floor.

A gym they weren’t using. Space.

And this church decided to turn its gym
into a night shelter for homeless people.

Each evening around the calendar,
volunteers from the church would spend the night in the shelter—
–providing food, clothing, and lodging
for as many of the homeless as the building would hold.
There were scores of people off the streets
because of THOSE people of faith.

Almost without exception, the volunteers reported that the experience
of spending the night with these people from the streets
had been FAR more than an act of duty.
The volunteers had found their OWN faith strengthened,
their own reliance upon the grace of Christ
reinforced by the experience…

…and I think many of you could say the same
about experiences with Cherith Brook
or the Community Assistance Council
or Harvesters, or Christmas in October
or Grace United Community Ministries,
or the Covenant Network, or New House
or Center Schools
or the countless, countless other ways YOU all serve.

Several months after this shelter, in this urban center, was opened,
one of the pastors of the church
was being interviewed on a radio talk program.

The interviewer was opinionated in her religious views—
-her biases were quite strong, and that’s ok, of course.
But it became clear during the interview,
that she felt the church ought to stick to
the business of preaching the old-time gospel
and stay away from meddlesome activities
like shelters for homeless people.

“Now just tell me,” she jeered at one point, “where is Jesus in all this?

For a moment the pastor considered silently how to respond,
then she said calmly:
“You just have to be there.”

///
Eyes are opened.
Come and see, calls the gospel

but the Jesus of the “Cotton Patch Gospel”
shrugged his shoulders and said,
“I can’t get them to look!”

Sometimes, we don’t see it.
We don’t look.
We slide through a day with our eyes glazed over…

There are times when you and I do not see
the grace of God at work in the world through Christ,
because, even when we come to the place where Christ is at work,
we will not look—REALLY look.

Like bored tourists at an art museum
we glance at everything, but see nothing…

+WORSHIP becomes a “nice ceremony”
full of pleasant music and sweet-sounding words
that we don’t want messed up—thank you very much
rather than THE arena for encountering the LIVING God.

+STEWARDSHIP becomes something involving guilt and even anger
rather than grateful, loving response.

+HUMAN STRIVING towards freedom and dignity becomes
“merely political”
rather than a sign of God at work in the world,
breaking all forms of bondage.

+INCLUSIVITY becomes a buzz-word of “political correctness”
rather than a heart brimming over for another
with respect and justice and love…

Some peer at EVERYTHING, but see NOTHING.

///
Eyes are opened.
Come and see.

In some ways, this is all that can be said to us….
…all that needs to be said to us.

Bartimaeus went, and through the grace of God,
Bartimaeus saw.

Jesus gave him new eyes
and he followed Jesus, along the way
up the road to Jerusalem
onward, to a life of amazing grace.

If we just can come with a willingness to see.
THEN, like Bartimaeus, we will find a Jesus
who can open blind eyes
who can clear the dimness of vision
who will show us more wonders of grace
than we ever dreamed there were to see.

Where have you been looking lately?

///
In her book Becoming Human,
Letty Russell describes the new sense of vision
which was given to her, ironically,
when she lost one of her eyes in a freak accident.

Things which once loomed large for her
now became small, in the light of the more important realities
of sight, health, and the compassionate care of others.

Moreover, she said,
her personal pain heightened her sensitivity to the pain of others,
it deepened her awareness of her own need for God’s care.

“This discovery that I was becoming at the same time
both stronger and weaker,” she wrote,
“was a small sign that God was patiently helping me
to become more human.” (p. 103)

///
A more human life. That is exactly what faith is all about.

The truth is, none of us can stay on the sidelines in the Christian Faith.
This is a faith to be LIVED.
A faith to be BREATHED,
and STUDIED, and FELT.

Just as our God is a God to be LOVED,
EMBRACED,
and WRESTLED WITH….!

///
One of the last sermons Paul Tillich ever preached was called,
“The New Being”

It was a sermon about what it is that is
ultimately important in life and faith.

With his last days upon him, Tillich said this:
“There is a saving power of God in the world
that is the power of reconciliation,
reunion,
and resurrection.

This power could be called, “The New Being.’

‘No particular religion matters” he said,
‘neither ours nor yours.
But I want to tell you something has happened that matters—
–something that judges you and me,
your religion and my religion.

“A New Creation has occurred. A New Being has appeared—
-but we may only EMBRACE it, **IF** we participate in it.
“And so, at the end, we only want to tell you
something that we have seen and heard—
–that HERE and THERE in the world,
and NOW and THEN in ourselves
is a New Creation;

Usually hidden, but sometimes manifest,
and certainly manifest in Jesus,
who is called the Christ…”

///
Here and there.
Now and then.
Usually hidden.

But ready—if we will but “come and see.”

///
I don’t have a nice story with which to end this sermon.

A story of participation and loyalty,
of love and faith
by which the New Being is made manifest.

Dear friends: YOU are that story.
This congregation is filled to overflowing
with people who, EVERY DAY— “Come and see”;

Women and men girls and boys,
who leave the sidelines and ENTER the arena, for God’s sake.
I thank God for your lives, and IN THEM—
–the stories of faith in action, love lived out,
hope personified—that would fill a library!

You can see some of it on our bulletin cover
and I know that there are countless more hours
volunteering hours,
driving someone to a doctor appointment
making a casserole or cookies
just checking in on someone,
so much more than we can capture.

And STILL—EVEN for US—
the seduction to be a mere SPECTATOR does not abate.

How do we keep that temptation at bay?
I think we keep reminding ourselves of
the call of Jesus to join him on the way
and we do what we need to do
to keep our heart and our mind on Jesus.

…Into the ongoing story of your lives, and mine,
these beginning of autumn questions:

–Where have you been looking lately?

–When was the last time you read a Psalm, or a favorite passage
and read it again and again
until it became, for you, a prayer?

–When was the last time you studied a face in great pain, or need, or struggle?
looked at it intently
and learned something about yourself from it?

–How is it, right now, with you and God?

–Where, in your life, is there a person in need of
reconciliation,
reunion,
resurrection?

–What do you do, in any given week,
that sends your heart beyond itself?

–What do you see—REALLY see—
when you look out upon the world?

–Who is the last person to whom you gave the holy invitation
to “come and see”?

///
Where have you been looking lately?

Bartimaeus, calling out for Jesus,
was there. He was there, and he had his eyes opened
and a new life there for him.
And he was never the same again,
traveling the way with Jesus.

And what did he see? What did he see, when his eyes were opened?
…well….you just have to be there.

May we be there.

Amen.

—
[1] From Thomas G. Long, Shepherds in Bathrobes, Logos Books, 1987. p. 35

Image credit: Michael Blagys Lighting Designer, http://www.michaelblagys.com/ . Provisionally posted. Waiting express permission.

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